Belgium, Italy and Romania have formed a consortium with US company Westinghouse Electric to develop and “deploy globally” lead-cooled fast reactors small nuclear reactors, said the consortium’s partners in a joint statement.

Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo signed the partnership in the presence of Romanian president Klaus Iohannis and representatives from the Italian and US embassies in Belgium.

The five partners are Westinghouse, Italian companies Ansaldo and ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development), the Romanian research institution Raten and Belgium’s nuclear research centre SCK CEN.